From the Front lines: Activists Expose Overfishing

Video | March 7, 2012

It’s no secret that African fisheries are being severely overfished. Having thoroughly crippled their own fisheries, trawlers from Europe, Russia, and parts of Asia, have moved into our waters to continue their destructive fishing practices.

Overfishing is about so much more than just the ocean’s ecology: it’s having a devastating effect on the local West African fishing economy, which employs roughly a million people in Senegal alone.

To highlight the serious problem of overfishing, and expose the countries responsible for it in Africa, we are currently sailing off the West coast of Africa. A Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, is out scouting for illegal fishing as part of our campaign for better-managed, sustainable fishing in West Africa.

The video here is rough footage from a recent action on a Russian trawler that was found fishing illegally. Activists paint the words “plunder” on the side of the boat, and pull off a plastic cover being used to hide the ship’s name while it plundered our fisheries.

Take Action:Sign our petition calling on Senegalese leaders to stop the plunder of African seas.

The video here is rough footage from a recent action on a Russian trawler that was found fishing illegally. Activists paint the words “plunder” on the side of the boat, and pull off a plastic cover being used to hide the ship’s name while it plundered our fisheries.